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On another damp night in Tokyo, Lisa Adams performed admirably to finish seventh in the discus F38 (Photo: Getty Images)

Throwing ace Lisa Adams wrapped up New Zealand’s proud showing at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games by placing seventh in the final of the women’s discus F38.

On a treacherous night for throwing on a rain-sodden evening, the 30-year-old Kiwi – who seven days earlier struck gold in the women’s shot put F37 – produced a commendable best of 29.69m.
Ma Li led home a Chinese one-two courtesy of a stunning world record throw of 38.50m to secure her fourth successive Paralympic discus title.

Given that the Lake City AC athlete was competing against athletes in a higher classification (F38 and lesser disability), Lisa always faced a formidable challenge.

After a first round foul she launched the discus out to 29.69m – within exactly 50cm of her F37 national record – in round two to sit fourth.

Unfortunately, the Rotorua-based thrower could not improve on her position, registering 29.22m in round three and 28.80m with her fourth effort. She committed successive fouls in rounds five and six.

Lisa said of her performance tonight: “I am all good with it, I’m not sad. It was fun. I wanted to make top eight, I finished seventh. I wanted to throw over 30m, I didn’t do it tonight but that is just the game that we play. It was wet out there and slippery, but you just make do with what you have.”

On the performance of the New Zealand Para athletics team, which snared seven medals, Lisa added: “I’m super proud. We’ve got such a good bunch from our leadership, our management crew, our coaches – our bond is pretty tight. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with our athletics team. We had eight athletes (at Tokyo 2020) and won seven medals, I’m pretty happy. The girls won three golds, a silver and a bronze and collectively we did mean.”

Performances

Lisa Adams
Women’s shot F37 – Gold – 15.12m – Paralympic & Oceania Record
Women’s discus F38 – Seventh – 29.69m

Anna Grimaldi
Women’s long jump T47 – Gold – 5.76m Paralympic Record

Holly Robinson
Women’s javelin F46 – Gold – 40.99m

Will Stedman
Men’s long jump T37 – Silver – 5.64m – Oceania Record
Men’s 400m T37 – Bronze – 54.75

Danielle Aitchison
Women’s 100m T36 – Bronze – 14.62 (Danielle set an Oceania record of 14.35 in the heats)
Women’s 200m T36 – Silver 29.88

Anna Steven
Women’s 200m T64 – Eighth – 28.88 (Anna set an Oceania record of 28.60 in the heats)
Women’s 100m T64 heats – DSQ

Caitlin Dore
Women’s shot put F37 – Eighth – 9.03m

Ben Tuimaseve
Men’s shot put F37 – Ninth 13.31m – Oceania Record